James Saumarez

James Saumarez (11 March 1757-6 July 1801) was an admiral of the Royal Navy of Great Britain during the French Revolutionary Wars.

Biography
James Saumarez was born on 11 March 1757 in St. Peter Port, Guernsey, in Great Britain. He enlisted in the Royal Navy in 1770 and served in the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War at the Battle of Dogger Bank, and in the American Revolutionary War at the Battle of the Saintes in 1782. Saumarez did not return to the Royal Navy until 1793, at the start of the French Revolutionary Wars. In the Action of 20 October 1793, he led the HMS Crescent and captured French ship La Reunion. Saumarez was knighted for his success in the second frigate battle of the War of the First Coalition, and he was a squadron commander at the Battle of Cape St. Vincent in 1797.

Saumarez later served under Admiral Horatio Nelson in the Mediterranean in Egypt, although relations between the two admirals were strained. Saumarez later came to his own command in 1801, when he took over a British fleet blockading the Spanish port of Cadiz. Saumarez was killed when his ship HMS Caesar exploded following a deck fire caused by the explosion of the French flagship Formidable. His fleet lost all 5 ships.